Theater of the Rose: The Guardian
by Kurisutaru6
Summary: This is a side story to Theater of the Rose. It's a prequel of sorts, but if you read this before TotR you will spoil the story! The story revolves around Garan, who is writing the story of his life from right before he became a vampire up until TotR.
1. Ch 1: The Beginning

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It is over, for now. The Sabbat are still out there but I can now rest knowing that my brother is finally at peace. Things have been rather quiet and dull as of lately. I spent so many years hunting Baldric down I can scarce remember what a peaceful existence was. My name is Gareth, or Garan if you'd like. It changes throughout the centuries. We vampires need to fit in with the modern times of course. But my birth name is Gareth Massingberd. I stand at 6' tall, lean, somewhat muscular. I have short slightly wavy light brown hair that I tend to slick back. My eyes are a light blue color, somewhat iridescent. One minute they look blue, the next they look gray. And my skin is very pale, not quite stark white, but close. I still look more human than Michael Jackson though. People tell me I'm very handsome, which is funny because in the 1600's I was not considered so. I have gaunt cheekbones and a perfect, straight nose with my usual tight-lipped serious look, encompassed by a small mustache and goatee. Humans are so fickle when it comes to what 'good looks' consist of. In my day we loved robust women, not fat but voluptuous. Nowadays I see models walking down the runway that look like waifs. Anyway, I am getting off the subject. Crystal has been bugging me to write the story of my 'darker days' as I like to call them, so here it is… 

It all began in a small village in northern England. I was born in 1652 to a family by the name of Massingberd. I was their youngest out of nine, two boys and seven girls. I was the favorite, and it made my older brother Baldric insanely jealous for he is 2 years older than I am. I loved my brother all the same though, for he was all I had. Every one of our elder siblings had married and moved away. It was just Baldric and I most of the time because both of our parents worked; my father was a smith, and my mother baked all day for extra money. She made the most fantastic raspberry tarts. Just thinking about it, I can almost taste them. Baldric and I would spend our days hunting and playing. We were very competitive, even for brothers. The years passed by like days. As my luck had it, right after my eighteenth birthday a very good friend of my father's had passed away and left his mountainside cottage to my father. I jumped at the chance and begged him to let me take it over. He agreed. I started working at the Falcon Inn as a tapster, or as they would say nowadays, bartender. 

I spent much of my free time painting. I loved to paint the breathtaking mountain scenery most of all. My father however wanted me to marry and take over his smithy shop, but I wasn't interested in marriage just yet. 

Then came the one day that would change my life forever. It was October of my twentieth year. I was out in the field painting. It was close to dusk, very peaceful. The cool autumn breeze rustled through the leaves of the trees. I headed back inside to grab another brush; I had just stepped through the door when I was violently slammed from behind into the stone wall. The force of the blow knocked me out instantly. I awoke a few hours later but whoever had attacked me was gone. The room was completely disheveled, yet nothing was missing. _Strange._ I thought to myself. I staggered into the washroom to splash some water on my face. When I caught my reflection in the mirror, I leapt back, wide-eyed. "This cannot be me!" I cried aloud, horrified. I came closer to the mirror to get a better look. My once tan skin was now a milky white, and my blue eyes had grown lighter, to a pale blueish-grey. I touched my face in disbelief. It felt cold and unnatural. Crazy thoughts started running through my mind. _Witchcraft, this must be some sort of trickery!_ I slammed my fist against the wall next to the mirror and crumpled to the floor sobbing uncontrollably. The tears ran down my cheeks and hit the backs of my hands. _They are blood red!_ I lifted my hand and licked it, sending pleasurable shivers down my spine. I immediately jumped back up onto my feet and took another look in the mirror. _Dear God in heaven! My face is streaked with blood! What is happening to me? Lord help me!_ I sat there on the floor of the bathroom praying until dawn. Thin rays of light began to peek through the shutters, and it burned my eyes a bit. I put out my hand to touch the beam of light and pulled it back quickly as a searing pain shot through my arm. _I need to get away from here._ I said to myself. Hurriedly I ran down the steps to my wine cellar and flopped down on the cold floor. 

I sat there for three days, praying to every saint I could remember. In the night I ventured out into the rest of my home, but at dawn I always had to retreat to the cellar to sleep. I kept trying to eat, but everything made me sick. Fruits, wine, cheese, meat, I could eat nothing. I had the most terrible thirst that wouldn't go away. This kept up for about three days, until Baldric came by. "Gareth? Are you in there?" he yelled as he peeked through the door. I could smell him. _No, no, go home Baldric!_ He entered the kitchen and started looking about. _Don't look in the wine cellar, please don't look here!_ I heard his footsteps overhead; he had entered the hallway, and was approaching the door to the cellar. I curled up in the corner, squinted my eyes closed and prayed he leave as he swung the door open and cried, "There you are! What are you doing down here? Mother and Father are worried, they haven't heard from you in weeks." I raised my head ever so slightly and told him to leave. "I won't go until you tell me what's going on here." He replied curtly. "I can't." I said. He came closer until he was hovering over me. "I told you to get away." I growled at him. He put his hand on my arm and pulled me up to my feet. "What has happened to you? You look sick." 

"It's nothing." 

"You're lying Gareth, you never were very good at it either." Baldric pulled my face close to get a better look. The smell of his blood flooded my nostrils. I couldn't take anymore. In one swift movement, I grabbed him and sunk my eyeteeth into his soft neck, drinking up the sweet nectar. His eyes widened in shock and he tried to struggle, but I greatly overpowered him, and my thirst greatly overpowered me. Before I knew it, I had drained him to the point of death. I placed his body on the ground and began to realize what I had just done. _I am some kind of monster! Brother, please don't die._ Frantically, I slit open both of my wrists with the horrible little teeth and the blood flowed onto his face and neck. "I don't care if I die! Take all of my blood, just please don't die!" To my surprise, his body lurched forward and grabbed a hold of my left wrist and began drinking my blood, lapping it right up. Suddenly he fell to the ground writhing and moaning. A great change had begun to take place in him. His skin paled dramatically. The once deep brown eyes were now an unnatural light brown, almost like a creamy golden brown. His black hair had taken on a preternatural sheen, even in the dark, dank cellar. I watched this in utter amazement, and realized what must have happened to me now. I stared in horror as my brother sat up and gave me a menacing look. "What the hell are you…" he muttered. "You are a demon! Get away from me!" He hurriedly got to his feet and backed up against the wall as I tried to approach him. "Baldric, please…listen to me!" I tried to soothe him, but he was seething with anger. "Listen to you?" he mocked, "You turned me into a demon! I will not listen to you! You are not my brother!" With those last words he ran out of the cellar and through the house and disappeared. I just let him go, there was nothing I could possibly do. Luckily dusk had already set in. _Am I really a demon? What happened to me that night?_ I looked at my recently cut wrists to find that they were already healed. I felt extremely weak, but managed to make it outside to the field. I crawled into the woods, sobbing quietly, looking for something, a rabbit, squirrel, anything. I actually happened upon a deer grazing in a clearing. I grabbed it by the neck with preternatural speed and voraciously drank my fill. Eventually I found my way back to my wine cellar and I sat there till morning. 

Chapter 2 >>>


	2. Ch 2: A Friend in Need is a Friend Indee...

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The next night I awoke, very hungry and still extremely upset. _Maybe I can kill myself…_ I sat and contemplated the validity of this notion for a few seconds, then decided against it. _This body won't let itself be burned by the sun, and anything I do heals itself quickly. I may as well make do with this for now._ I decided to take a walk in town. I couldn't stand being stuck in that cellar for one more minute. So out I went, still troubled by the thought of what I did to my brother, and plagued with questions. I came across a tavern called the Bell Tavern on Stone St. I made my way inside the bar full of strangers. Nobody seemed to notice me, except for one man. He was dressed in fine clothing, black tights and a dark green velvet tunic. His black hair was parted down the center, long and curly, and he had astonishing gray eyes. He just stared at me as I walked past, I could sense there was something strange about him. _"Strange? Not at all."_ the voice echoed in my head. _What was that?_ I looked around but nobody was talking to me, they were all involved in their own conversations. I became frightened of this magic voice and quickly headed out the back door and started to run. "Wait young one!" a voice with a brogue called from behind. I turned around to see him, the same man from the tavern. "You look confused and frightened. What's your name?" he said. 

"My name? It's Gareth sir." 

"Gareth, come with me. I know what you are, I can help you." 

"I am a demon, an abomination. How can you help me?" 

"You are not a demon my dear boy. Come, I will explain all to you. My name is Gerard." He told me as he held out his hand. I grasped it and shook it. He turned and started walking and I followed closely. We eventually came upon a small brick house and Gerard opened the door. "Enter." He said. I did, and sat on a wooden chair at a round table in the large room I had entered. The room was very bare and simple, a few paintings hung from the walls, there was a large fireplace built into the wall across from where I sat. Gerard sat down across from me and looked at me. "So tell me, who embraced you?" 

"Embraced? What are you talking about?" 

"You mean to tell me you have no clue what has happened to you?" 

"No, not really." 

"Who would have done such a thing?" he sighed. "I'll explain it all to you now. You are a vampire, kindred as we like to call ourselves. We are the undead, who walk during the night." 

"Feed? You mean blood? We have to drink blood?" 

"Yes, unfortunately that is our only way of survival. But you do not have to kill. You can take what you need, and cover up the inflicted wounds with your saliva. You also can control humans thoughts so that they do not remember what happened." 

"How did I become this creature?" 

"Ah. You were drained to the point of death, and then given blood from the vampire who created you." 

"Where did this all start? Where did we come from?" 

"Where did humans come from? No one really knows. Most believe we are descendants of Caine, Cainites as they call us." 

"So I'm not a demon?" 

"We vampires do not believe in such things. I have neither seen nor heard of a demon, Devil, or God. I only know that we live forever, that we never age, and the only things that can kill us are fire and sunlight. But depending on your age and your sire's age, you become more resilient to these things." 

"So I'll never die?" 

"Not of old age, no. I'm not sure how strong your sire's blood is since you don't even know who it is. But you'll find out soon enough." 

"Well, I had stepped into a beam of sunlight after I was transformed into this…embraced as you say. It burned something awful, but didn't really hurt me." 

Gerard looked shocked for a second. "Are you sure?" 

"Yes." 

"Your sire must be over 500 years old! No thin-blooded young one could withstand that." 

"Why did they pick me?" 

"I'm not quite sure…your looks maybe? Kindred are very picky about their childe's appearance. Forgive me, but you are strikingly handsome." 

I laughed. "It's ok, I've just never been called handsome before." 

"Ah, one more thing; we must sleep hidden during the daylight hours. Your preference, coffin, cellar, wherever." 

"How did you know about that?" I asked. "The cellar?" 

"I can read your thoughts, you don't yet know how to mask them." 

"You will teach me then?" 

"All in good time my friend. First, we must feed." Gerard said as he got up and walked toward the door. I followed. 

Chapter 3 >>>


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